September 23, 2013

So Much Fun!

We took a ride in the tractor down our hedgerow to pick some apples. I picked dozens of really small apples and spent the day peeling apples and making some okay applesauce. Off we went to pick more apples from our neighbor's tree, made more applesauce and baked a five pound apple pie. YUMMY!



A basket of apples from our Tim Horton's Apple Man Buddy--these we ate!


Not a Complete Disaster...

Eight pepper plants yielded just four jalapeno and 2 green bell peppers. Out of six tomato plants we picked just two red tomatoes. Around three dozen beautiful green tomatoes, which I brown bagged to ripen (they spoiled before they ripened--frost damage). Saved by our Tim Horton garden buddy...dropped off three dozen beautiful large bell peppers, weighing a whopping 13 pounds in all. I made two dozen stuffed green peppers and froze the rest. Also, a dozen zucchinis from one plant and our corn was wonderful. We froze four dozen ears of corn and shared another four dozen. And, we ate lots and lots ourselves. We only had enough butternut squash for ourselves and a few for sharing with others.

July 16, 2013

What Worked For Me

The hardware on my antique chest was in bad need of cleaning. After going online and trying three different solutions, this is what worked for me:

A mixture of baking soda and lemon juice.  I used about one half box of baking soda and added lemon juice until the mix was about the texture of honey. I made enough to cover all my hardware and soaked overnight. The next day I just rinsed, washed in soapy water, using a sponge, and rinsed again. Easy--no toothbrush, no scrubbing .

What didn't work as well:

1. Soaking in coke overnight.

2. Soaking in a mixture of flour, white cider, and salt overnight. I made more of the above-mentioned lemon juice/baking soda mixture (enough to completely cover all the handles).

This as a picture of mixture #2 above:













They came out pretty good!













Sanding done:













Now I am off to Google for some advice on choice of stain...



July 14, 2013

Behind Schedule!

Oh golly! I do love the Internet. BUT...in seeing a link on "How To Convert VHS Tapes to DVD", I had to purchase a screen capture device. Spent a couple of months converting my tapes to my computer. I am in process of restoring this old chest and catching up with our gardening. I know--excuses, excuses!



March 23, 2013

Under Construction!

Hopefully, I will figure out how to better organize my tabs. In my lifetime!